Actually, it won’t be Seville but A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela and the barber up the end of our road that we went to today is not from Spain at all but from Central Europe. But it sounds like a nice connection anyways, doesn’t it:)

Tomorrow morning, Smart will be heading up to the airport with that super-cooper MountainTirke to catch an early afternoon flight with Air Lingus to the land of our celtic brothers and sisters to walk in the footsteps of the Wild Geese.

Are we prepared? You bet we aren’t. Life is too short for that, right? Whatever is going to happen will happen, and we’ll have no other choice but to let it happen. We’ll take it easy and enjoy every moment of it. Because that’s what life is for.

It really is. That simple.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, two hours drive east of Holyhead, a smart guy set up this business in an unmarked “industrial unit”, manufacturing the equivalent of a four-wheel drive wheelchair.

When everyone in Ireland told me Pádraig’s existing wheelchair could not be ‘pimped’ converting it into a track ‘n field wheelchair because it was built for long, even corridors of ‘institutions’ and that whoever was sitting in such a chair was also not meant to travel the great outdoors, I asked Dr Google if he had a solution. He pointed me to three or four companies. The one in the middle of nowhere in Brexit England managed to manufacture one especially to fit Pádraig’s height, just in time. It has mountain bike wheels and air suspension with a wide wheel base for extra stability and comfort. They had never done such a huge customised chair. In beautiful green, sparkling colour! Ready for the Camino Celta!

This morning, Pádraig, a good friend and myself set sail on the Irish Sea’s fastest ferry to Holyhead, drove to the middle of nowhere, collected the chair, got some final adjustments done, drove back to Holyhead, and return on the flying catamaran to Dublin. After a long day with tons of excitement we’re exhausted and tired, but really happy and grateful that all worked out  – I couldn’t say ‘as planned’ because today was too complex to plan. Little details we had never thought about enough, like: how would the two chairs fit into the car on the return trip? It came all together. Like magic.

No idea where this day went. It just disappeared into thin air. I have a list of what happened: PAs arrived at 7am, the speech and language therapist (SLT) at 9am, physio at 10.30, massage at 11.30, lunch at 12.30, TG4 film crew 13.30, music therapy at 4pm, friends at 6pm, TG4 film crew left at about 8pm, camera man at 9pm. The camera man very kindly left me some pretty cool camera to film our adventures on the camino!

Tomorrow will be easy and straight forward in comparison. Ferry will leave at 8.45. We’ll drive about 2 hours to get to the manufacturing plant for Pádraig’s Mountain Trike specially manufactured wheelchair. With a bit of luck we’ll catch the fast ferry back a around 5pm to arrive back in Dublin at 7pm.

To be honest: my head is spinning a bit but I’m sure it’ll all sort itself out and all will be just alright.

Got the confirmation today that Pádraig’s new all-terrain wheelchair will be ready by Thursday. We’ll have to collect it in England, just over 2 hours’ drive from Holyhead to make sure it’ll fit him and to be able to make any last adjustments if needs be. It’ll be a long day but after that we’ll hopefully be ready to go on that big adventure and pilgrimage

In case you missed it, as I did, there was an article in last Wednesday’s The Herald reporting, again, on the bed closures in the NRH, together with a statement by the HSE saying there are plans to change things for the better in their 2017 Service Plan. Mmmhhhhhh….

It’s  Easter Monday and it’s Independence Day.
Two brilliant things happened today.

First, two of Pádraig’s friends came by and went out with him on a walk. I thought they’d never come back, it seemed so long. From what I heard, they had a really good time and are planning a follow-up with a variation on the theme of ‘independence’. Really, we (the old guys) don’t have to be involved. We’re not indispensable. We’re not really needed. At least not all the time. A strange-feeling and absolutely brilliant and makes-me-so-happy realisation. I guess it is good for all of us to have us around, but we can (should!) also have an independent life. All of us.

Then, Pádraig’s sister re-activated his Facebook page because the plan is to have im sending messages out to his friends and getting messages and stuff called ‘likes’ (I think) from them. I don’t know what the page looks like (never really did, thinking about it), but the idea of getting back online to me sounds and feels like another huge step of getting back into life. An Saol. Dreamboaters Ahoy!

Went out to see the ceremony on O’Connell Street – which we missed, but where President Michael D. shook Pádraig’s hand –  had something to eat in the Greshams, and walked back up to Glasnevin cemetery – all in all a good Easter Sunday and a bit of training for the camino next week.

I want to sleep. To be in my dreams. To be with the ones I love. The ones that love me. No troubles. No reason to complain. All in tune. All in balance.

So that’s what I’ll do tonight. Ready to roll this big stone from the opening of the tomb to let in the light. For Pádraig to see.

The light guiding the dreamboaters, guiding us on the way, the way of life. An Saol.

Pádraig and I went to join a ceremony at noon today following the stations of the cross. Whatever you think about or believe in relating the stations, it is one of the most powerful prayers and ceremonies I know. I had half forgotten about it, so it really hit me very deep down. – To me it’s an allegory for what life is in essence. Life, from the very start is deemed to end, no matter what you do or think or try to do. In between birth and death, there’s a lot of suffering, whether you admit to it or not, whether you have experienced it yet or not.There are also those dreamboaters along the way who do the most incredible things to encourage and help you.

But while I was joining the prayers I could not help but thinking about the poem by Antonio Machado, used as the lyrics for what I would consider to be one of the most significant and memorable songs ever, La Saeta:

If you have a few minutes, listen to the song by Joan Manuel Serrat, and remember the times in Spain, one year before Franco’s death. It’s from a cassette (!) I bought and played and played and played at the time Pat and I lived in Salamanca and met for the first time. There are days when I wonder have I move on at all from those days. And I think I have a bit in myself of the young people who don’t like their birthdays, because they don’t want to grow up?

Omg, rn, afk, my bf is lol bc he’s on imgur w this tl;dr posts and nty. Imo, lame af. Oh, brb, I gtg. Ttyl!

Ok. I did not write this. I found it in an informal competition on writing the longest sentence possible in text speak. There’s all sorts of things to say about using abbreviations which most mortals have to look up on lists to make sense of. I’ve heard of people who made up abbreviations to confuse the receiver of the message – or just to have some (very weird) fun.

RFK is not one of these abbreviation, it’s the initials of the brother of JFK (everybody recognises that acronym), former US attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy. He once said – and I couldn’t find out in which context: Don’t get mad get even. You probably know that RFK was assassinated, so you would be excused if you believed that maybe, just maybe that strategy of his didn’t work as well as it sounds and as he thought it would.

I still like it. Mostly because “getting mad” has a taste of helplessness, of not being in control of the situation, like avictim-type reaction. Whereas “getting even” has the feel of an eye-to-eye relationship, a much more controlled, rational approach that will just not allow certain things to pass.

The one, but very important, downside to all that kind of thinking is that you might spend your time trying to get even, when the person or institution that is getting all your attention and all your available time isn’t really worth it. It could all be quite a waste of time. Trying to get even. When you really have more important, positive and proactive things to do. – Probably worthwhile reflecting on this a little more…

Today, I booked the hotels for the 2nd leg of the Camino Celta in Spain: one night in A Coruña, four nights in Ordes, and two nights in a priests’ seminary (no less) in Santiago. Great to have that organised and to know that wheelchair accessible rooms will be ready for Pádraig when he gets there.

As a good, newly made friend recently put it: Onwards towards Santiago!

It means so much and puts the pitiful ignorance of neglect into its place.

Dreamboaters. Ahoy!